Pessimism clouds deficit talks

The Biden Group: It sounds like a think tank, a lobbying firm or even a campaign consulting shop.

What it isn’t — at least not yet — is a vehicle for lawmaking. For now, it’s just the latest in a series of high-profile gangs that can’t shoot straight.

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The deficit-reduction task force, led by Vice President Joe Biden and populated by a mix of about a dozen administration officials and Republican and Democratic House and Senate members, met for a second time Tuesday amid great fanfare and low expectations. The result: not much.

Two senators who were in the room for the talks said the group moved from the opening statements of last week’s first meeting to discussing more specific categories of spending.

“I suppose you could say that in some cases, there were actual programs and categories of programs,” said Arizona’s Jon Kyl, the Senate minority whip. “We’re not just sitting there doing crossword puzzles.”

Despite perfunctory proclamations of “progress” — Washington code for lots of talk and little action — the players appear no closer to a deal than they were after their first meeting last week. Democrats and Republicans involved in the process say it’s not clear what the president’s endgame is, much less the optimal outcome for each of the individual congressional players.

Even Biden isn’t sure whether his own group can make a deal.

“Whether we can get to the finish line with this group is another question,” Biden said Tuesday outside negotiations. “Everybody is being straight, cordial. All the facts are being laid on the table. We were going through what we agree on, what we disagree on.”

The president is pursuing other avenues even as the Biden group huddles at Blair House, the 119-room, 35-bathroom mansion that serves as the nation’s guesthouse for foreign dignitaries.

Obama plans to meet with the full Senate Democratic and Republican caucuses Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. OMB Director Jack Lew and Obama economic adviser Gene Sperling, two of the administration officials at the table with the Biden group, addressed the Senate Democratic lunch Tuesday afternoon, and Reid indicated that House Democrats and Republicans will head to the White House soon to get their face time with Obama, as well.

For the Biden group, there are no clear parameters for how to even begin making a long-term deficit agreement, and it’s possible, if not likely, that a grand bargain will quietly slip away as a small-scale deficit reduction package is attached to a debt ceiling increase instead.